Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1942. CRITICS & THE WAR EFFORT.
1 a statement on the war situation before the House of Representatives went into secret session last evening, the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) said that he and his colleagues expected, invited and welcomed criticism from any membei, asking only that it should be helpful and constructive criticism. The opinion is held very widely, in New Zealand that as a people we are capable of a much greater war effort than we have yet made. The present session of Parliament —called for the sole purpose of receiving and acting upon the report of the War Cabinet—may be regarded as implying an acceptance and endorsement of that opinion. At the same time, some recent public, criticism of the national war effort has been obviously reckless and far more sweeping than visible facts, or any that are likely to be known to the critics, can justify. Criticism that degenerates into abuse, calumny and defeatism is as far as possible from being a service to the nation. It is, indeed, something that it would be well worth the enemy’s while to spend money on promoting and encouraging. Ample scope no doubt will be found, within and outside the walls of Parliament, for legitimate and well-justified criticism. It is not to be supposed for a moment that the organisation for war which had been improvised and built up hurriedly in New Zealand is or could be free from more or less serious imperfections. Inefficiency in military or civil administration or the misuse or abuse of delegated power by anyone, in high place or low, should be rooted out ruthlessly wherever it is found. Practical and constructive criticism must avoid equally the extremes of an outrageous complaint and denunciation, defeatist in tendency, and of a complacent assumption .that all is well and for the best. In and outside Parliament it should be possible to do useful work both in overhauling existing organisation and in opening up new extensions of Avar effort, with the fact always in mind that recent developments in the Pacific have intensified heavily the danger of attack upon the outlying defences of New Zealand and upon its own territory. It is by a bold lead in effective action that the Government and the War- Cabinet can and should best answer criticism. In particular, there is need of a searching examination of all the possibilities of more effectively co-ordinating industrial enterprise and military organisation, to the end of making the greatest practicable contribution within the Dominion to the mobilisation of the largest possible fighting forces, adequately armed and equipped. INDUSTRIAL DESERTION. JT may be hoped that in the action it is taking to break the strike of freezing workers in Auckland—by deregistering the striking union, cancelling its award and calling lor volunteers —the Government will have the solid support, not only of the people of the Dominion generally, but of a very large proportion of the workers immediately concerned. Otherwise it would have to be assumed that these workers are prepared to use industrial contention as a cover for treasonable action on behalf of the enemies of New Zealand and its Allies. The ostensible causes of the hold-up in Auckland are insignificant and entirely irrelevant to the actual issue raised. That issue is simply whether workers engaged in a vital industry are to play their part loyally in furtherance of the national wareffort "or are’to play the enemy’s game by doing what they can to paralyse that effort. In this hour of great emergency the action of the Westfield strikers and those who are supporting them is a betrayal of our fighting forces and of the whole population of the Dominion. This action must be defeated because its effect definitely is to help the enemies who arc intent on ravaging and despoiling- New Zealand and on enslaving its people.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 March 1942, Page 2
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645Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1942. CRITICS & THE WAR EFFORT. Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 March 1942, Page 2
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